Floor Statements

Mr. President, the FAA Modernization Act, which we are debating in the Senate today, makes critical improvements that will ensure our aviation system is safe and efficient. That will put us on a path to modernizing our air traffic control system.

Now, in a short while, early this afternoon, the Senate will vote on whether we will finish this bill and send it to conference or whether Republicans are again going to refuse to work with us and force us to take this bill off the Senate floor.

I hope we are going to vote to move forward this afternoon. My colleagues on the Commerce and Finance Committees worked very hard on this important bill because it is critical to our Nation's economy that our aviation system work smoothly. We have some serious problems that we need to address.

Our air travel infrastructure is aging fast. It needs to be updated. The bill before us will help us modernize our aviation system to ensure that it continues to be the safest in the world.

We also have to take action to help carriers deal with rising fuel costs and, of course, to protect our passengers by reducing flight delays and cancellations.

Unfortunately, as we speak this morning, the Senate is essentially deadlocked. Republicans say they object to certain tax provisions, even though this bill, I remind everyone, was supported overwhelmingly when it was marked up in the Finance Committee. But our Republican colleagues insist that we strip out every provision that isn't directly linked to aviation. If that isn't done, they say they are going to filibuster this bill and keep us from ever getting to a final vote on it.

The majority leader has said time and again that he would welcome amendments to the bill, but Republicans have refused. Instead of working with us to come to an agreement on the points they oppose, they are going to block the whole bill.

What is most unfortunate about the Republican filibuster today is that this is a vitally important piece of legislation. Although my job as chairman of the Transportation Appropriations Subcommittee is to deal with appropriations, not authorizations, I can also tell you that this FAA bill is not just a bill that would be nice to have, it is a bill we must have.

Some of our most important aviation authorities expire at the end of this June. That means by the end of next month, if this bill is not enacted, the FAA will no longer have the authority to spend money out of the Airport and Airway Trust Fund.

Every penny that has been appropriated for purchasing and modernization at the FAA is paid for out of that fund. So if this bill doesn't become law at the end of next month, billions of dollars in projects at the FAA are going to grind to a halt.

If this bill doesn't become law, all of the employees who work on those projects will be told to stay home because the agency would not be able to pay them.

Mr. President, that is not all. Republican obstruction of this bill would cost billions of dollars in capital projects at our Nation's airports. The entire Airport Improvement Program, or AIP, would be shut down, and billions of dollars in critical safety improvements at airports across the country would go unspent.

Finally, our ability to collect ticket taxes from air travelers in order to fund our trust fund will run out. That would push the FAA's primary source of funding closer to bankruptcy.

Mr. President, these are not just small things. These programs ensure that airplanes and airports operate safely, and nobody can argue that safety would not be harmed if we shut down the ability of the FAA to modernize its long-outdated radar infrastructure.

I wish to talk about one of the nonaviation provisions that the Republicans say is a reason they are standing in the way of this important critical piece of legislation. I want to tell you why I believe it is critical to keep it in this legislation. The provision I am referring to addresses an urgent problem with the highway trust fund.

If we don't act now, the highway trust fund will go bankrupt sometime next year. If that happens, it will put a stop to Federal road projects across our entire country. That means bridge improvements, turn lanes, highway widenings, and countless projects would no longer get the Federal funding that has been promised. These are vital projects to all of our communities. They ensure that our highways are safe. They are essential to commerce and economic development.

It is critical to every State in our Nation and everybody who drives on our Federal highway system that we find a way to keep this trust fund solvent.

I have been sounding the alarm over this looming disaster for almost 2 years. We are at a point now where we have to find a fix to ensure that we don't have to make disastrous cuts in our highway spending next year.

Very early in this Congress, both Chairman Baucus and Ranking Member Grassley committed in writing to myself and my ranking member, Senator Bond, that they would make this fix that is now contained in this bill.

I ask unanimous consent that the letter to Senator Bond and myself be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, in the tax portion of the aviation bill, Chairman Baucus and Senator Grassley are keeping their word. This provision in this bill authorizes that there will be enough money to continue highway projects under SAFETEA-LU--the Federal transportation planning bill.

As I said, this addresses an urgent need. If the highway trust fund provision is stripped from this bill, my subcommittee could be required to cut highway spending for 2009 by $14 billion just to keep the trust fund out of bankruptcy next year. That will represent a cut of more than one-third in a single year.

I think all of our colleagues should know exactly what is being put at risk if the highway trust fund provisions were to be stripped out of this bill.

I ask unanimous consent that a table that has been prepared by the Federal Highway Administration be printed in the Record.

The agency's table shows all of us the amount of money each and every State will see cut next year if the highway trust fund were not fixed and if we are required to fix it through the appropriations process for 2009. No State will be spared. Look up your own State. Texas will lose $822 million. Kentucky will lose $175 million. Minnesota will lose $125 million. Maine would lose $44 million. The list goes on. Look up your State and learn what is at risk if we don't vote to move this bill forward and solve this problem.

I remind my colleagues that the provisions in this bill do not fix the trust fund on the long-term basis. The fix that is in this bill will only be sufficient to keep the highway trust fund in the black through 2009. But cutting this provision would not just mean States would lose the ability to make urgent road improvements, it would also mean a loss of a half million jobs across our Nation.

Many of my colleagues have talked about the terrible impact felt in the construction sector by the recent economic slowdown. Some have called for economic stimulus proposals to get the sector back on its feet.

I have to say, stripping the highway trust provision out of this bill will have the exact opposite effect. It will mean layoffs at a time when our economy badly needs help. So I hope our colleagues take that into consideration when we vote this afternoon on whether to move forward on this bill.

In addition, I hope my colleagues remember that earlier this year we learned some disturbing news about the FAA's handling of safety inspections at Southwest Airlines. We learned that the FAA had not reviewed Southwest's system for complying with certain agency safety directives since 1999. That revelation caused a great deal of concern about the FAA's safety inspections across the country, with very good reason. Those inspections are important because they help our airlines and the FAA discover potential problems and address them before there is a tragedy.

But when Congress began looking into the problem, we found it was much more extensive. Last month, at a hearing with the Acting FAA Administrator, Robert Sturgell, and the Department of Transportation inspector general, I learned for well over 5 years the FAA had not examined whether Southwest was using the right safety systems for certain maintenance requirements.

Now, you can imagine I was concerned to hear about that. So I asked him how many other airlines had missed safety inspections. Mr. Sturgell could not answer me. Well, I asked him to get it back to me. I finally received an answer. The FAA now tells us it has failed to perform dozens of mandatory inspections at seven other major air carriers.

In fact, the FAA now says it has missed more than 100 of these required safety inspections at major airlines. Mr. Sturgell said that part of the reason might be ``inadequate resources.'' Well, I am not sure how that could be. I have been working, along with my colleagues, to increase funding for FAA inspections for the last 7 years--in fact and this is true of my appropriations subcommittee, whether I have been chairman or my Republican colleagues have been chairman, for the last 4 years. We have provided more funding for more safety inspectors than the FAA has ever requested of us. So this is a funding issue? The FAA hasn't been honest about the true needs of its agency.

Now, I know Congress has been doing its part to build the inspection workforce without the benefit of a request from the FAA, and as a result, we have hundreds more inspectors across the country than the FAA has ever requested. Either way, I have serious concerns because the agency has insisted that the airlines must be the ones to guarantee the safety of their operations, and it is said that FAA inspectors are best used to ensure that the airlines have assistance to do the job. Now we are being told that the FAA is years behind in inspecting those very systems.

The lesson from the Southwest debacle is that these safety inspections matter. They are one of the best indicators of whether an airline has its act together when it comes to maintenance and safety compliance. Clearly, the FAA needs to bring more focus and leadership to meeting its own self-imposed deadlines, and we will be looking for quarterly reports and answers on this as we move forward.

So with all of these safety concerns as a backdrop, this afternoon we are now facing a filibuster from our Republican colleagues who want to bring down the FAA safety authorization bill. We have a bill before us that clearly offers us a chance to make a difference for safety, for our airlines, for our passengers, for our highways, and for our economy. We are talking about a bill that ensures the safety of our air travel. This is a critically important bill and, by the way, until recently a bipartisan one. But now we are hearing that the Republicans want to wage their 68th filibuster on a bill that is important to all of us.

We have the ability to move forward. I urge our Republican colleagues to work with us and to not obstruct this bill this afternoon because anyone who has stood in an endless line at an airport or had their flight canceled or wanted to have important highway improvements done is counting on us to do the job. So I urge my colleagues to negotiate instead of blocking progress, and I hope they will work with us to do this quickly as we move to the bill today.

Mr. President, I thank you, and I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak as in morning business for 10 minutes.

Thank you, Mr. President.

Mr. President, as I come to the floor to speak this afternoon, millions of Americans are struggling to hold on to their homes in the wake of the foreclosure crisis. Thousands of them have lost their jobs, just in the last couple of months. Millions more are finding it harder just to get by because sky-high oil prices are forcing many of our families to pay more at the pump, more at the grocery store, and more in their power bills.

Yet while all of these working families are scrimping so hard today, the economic downturn has not even registered for one segment of America--big oil. The major oil companies reported their profits this week, and they are seeing record increases.

ConocoPhillips reported first quarter profits of $4.1 billion. That beats their previous record by $600 million. Shell and BP are also reporting huge gains.

Americans do not have to look very hard to figure out where the responsibility lies--why oil companies are seeing their profits soar-- while working families are watching their bank accounts bottom out. Over the last 7\1/2\ years, Republicans have backed an energy policy that does very little but gives big oil companies tax breaks and special favors. Meanwhile, our middle-class families today are paying the price, and they know it.

In the first month of the Bush administration, oil prices averaged $29.50 a barrel. Almost 8 years later, that price has quadrupled. It is almost $120 a barrel this week.

When President Bush first took office, Americans were paying just $1.46 a gallon to fill their gas tanks. Last week, gas prices averaged a whopping $3.60 a gallon.

I went home last week--like I always do--to Washington State, where drivers are paying even more. A gallon of gas in Seattle, WA, costs $3.70; up in Bellingham, near the Canadian border, $3.80.

Families across my State are telling me they are cutting back on everything from shopping errands to summer vacations, and they are pretty angry they have to pinch their pennies while oil companies are making record profits.

When I travel around my State, gas prices are one of the first things people come up and talk to me about. They have written me countless letters about this.

For example, there is a stay-at-home mom from Yakima, WA, who wrote me that she worries every single day because her husband now has started riding a motorcycle to work instead of his car in order to save money on their gas bill. She wrote to me, and I want to read to you what she said. She said:

It is unnerving to think of him riding his motorcycle after

working a 10-plus hour shift. . . . It does not seem fair

that my middle class family has to choose between paying the

doctor--or putting gas in [our] car--while oil companies are

making record profits.

High gas prices are not just affecting our drivers. Industries from shipping to trucking to commercial fishing in my State are all hurting. Our farmers in Washington State are especially concerned. We have thousands of farmers in Washington State. They grow everything from apples to wheat. They have to plow their fields and harvest their crops. Cutting back is not an option for them. They have no choice but to absorb the cost of fuel.

One woman--from the southern Washington farming community of Goldendale--just wrote to me that she and her husband are finding it hard to pay for groceries. I want to quote what she said:

We, the little people, are struggling. Meanwhile, the gas

companies are still netting billions. When is it going to

stop? Something needs to be done to stop the nonsense.

That is how a farmer's wife from southwest Washington sees it.

Republicans have supported the energy policy of tax breaks for the oil companies because, they say, oil prices would be higher without them. But even President Bush said that was not true. In April of 2006, he said:

Congress has got to understand that these energy companies

don't need unnecessary tax breaks like the write-offs of

certain geological and geophysical expenditures--or the use

of taxpayers' monies to subsidize energy companies' research

into deep-water drilling.

That was President Bush.

The reality is, not only have Republicans allowed oil companies to make record profits while gas prices have soared, but their policies have made us

more dependent on foreign oil than ever before. That has put our economy and our national security at risk. The amount of money we have sent to OPEC countries, such as Saudi Arabia, has skyrocketed from $41 billion to $140 billion since 2001. Just this week, the president of OPEC said oil prices could go as high as $200 a barrel.

Now, I come to the floor to talk about this today because over the last several days we have seen a parade of Republican Senators coming to the floor complaining about high gas prices. In many cases, they have been blaming Democrats for failing to address this crisis over the past 16 months. They are bringing out charts that show the price of gas when Democrats took over in Congress and the price now, and they ask all of us to simply forget the real reason for this crisis; that is, the misguided energy policy this administration has pursued for over 6 years.

But I have to tell you, the people in my State and the American people are not going to forget. They are not going to forget it was this administration that asked oil and gas companies to write that energy plan. They are not going to forget that the only real idea coming from the other side is to drill our way out of this problem. And they will not forget this is an administration closer to the oil and gas industry than any in U.S. history.

Now, we are not going to forget either, and that is why we are fighting for change. We have already won higher fuel economy standards and new investments in renewable energy sources. We all know we need to do more. We know that Americans cannot rely on big oil to solve our energy problems.

People in my home State of Washington are worried. They are worried about the future. They want to be sure their kids are going to have economic security. They want a solution to our energy problems that is going to keep us safe and protect our environment for the long term. Democrats have been fighting for policies that will help cut our gas prices, help to create jobs, and help keep our air and our water clean and, importantly, our Nation secure. We are going to keep up that fight. We know it is not going to be easy. The oil companies and those who support them are not going to give up on the status quo. Still, I hope our friends on the other side of the aisle will see what I see when I go home: Americans have had enough. I hope they will join us in investing in America's future and putting our working families first again.

Thank you, Mr. President.

I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, we are now 5\1/2\ years into the war in Iraq. We have been at war longer now than we fought in World War II, and we are creating hundreds of new veterans each and every year. Yet, too often, what we have seen is that this administration has failed to acknowledge the price our veterans and their families are paying in service. From the shameful conditions at Walter Reed Hospital a year ago, and VA facilities across the country, to a lack of mental health counselors, to a benefit claims backlog of months and sometimes years for our

veterans, our veterans have had to struggle to get the basic care they were promised. And now, just this week, in the last few days, we got more evidence that this administration has been covering up the extent of the toll this war has taken on our troops.

Internal e-mails that became public in a court hearing showed that the VA has vastly downplayed the number of suicides and suicide attempts by veterans in the last several years.

Last November, an analysis by CBS News found that over 6,200 veterans had, sadly, committed suicide in 2005. That is an average of 17 a day. When they were confronted then, the VA said: Oh, no, no, no, those numbers are much lower than that. Now we find that according to internal e-mails from the VA's head of mental health, Dr. Ira Katz, 6,570 veterans actually committed suicide in 2005, an average of 18 a day. Those e-mails also revealed that VA officials also knew that another 1,000 veterans who are receiving care at our VA medical facilities attempt suicide each month. Those numbers offer tragic evidence that our Nation is failing thousands of veterans every year, and they reflect an administration that has failed to own up to its responsibilities and failed even to own up to the true impact of the war on our veterans.

What is most appalling to me is that this is not the first time the VA has covered up the problems facing our veterans who have sacrificed for our country. Time and again, this VA told us one thing in public while saying something completely different in private. It is outrageous to me that our VA officials would put public appearance ahead of people's lives. Yet it appears that is what is happening again and again.

When we as Members of Congress sit down to try to determine what resources we need to give to the VA, we have to truly understand what is going on. If there is a problem, we have to act. It is our duty and the duty of this administration to care for our veterans. By covering up the true extent of the problem, the VA has actually hindered our ability to get those resources to the veterans who need them. That is irresponsible, and it is wrong.

I have come to the floor today because we now have an opportunity to extend benefits to our veterans. These benefits that are in the bill that is before the Senate today will help them with job training, insurance, housing, and other matters. The bill that is before us offers veterans peace of mind and will help them to readjust as they come home to civilian life.

The Veterans' Benefits Enhancement Act the Senate is currently considering expands traumatic injury insurance. It increases job training--vital to many of our veterans who are coming home. It extends housing benefits to veterans with severe burns, something we have to do. And critically, it restores limited pension benefits to Filipino veterans who fought for our country in World War II.

This is a bill that we have done in our VA Committee that normally would come to the floor and pass straight through this body by unanimous consent. It is budget neutral, and it works to provide long overdue care for some of our Nation's heroes. But, instead, this bill has languished for 9 months. Why? Because the Republicans chose obstruction over our veterans. The majority leader and our chairman, Senator Akaka, have worked since last August to try to come to an agreement. They have tried to come to the floor and work out amendments and figure out a way to move this bill forward. But for 9 months the Republicans preferred to play political games and block this critically important bill. It is just part of an overall pattern we have seen on this floor with numerous bills we have been trying to bring forward.

Today, finally we have come to an agreement--late, but finally have come to an agreement--and the Republicans have agreed to move this bill forward.

Later this morning, we are going to have the opportunity to vote for legislation that extends important benefits to help our veterans transition back into civilian life. It expands home-improvement benefits to completely disabled servicemembers before they enter the VA system to help them adapt to their new homes. This will prevent months or even years of delays while they transition from the military into the VA care. The bill we are considering extends monthly educational assistance for veterans who are pursuing an apprenticeship or on-the- job training, and it requires the National Academy of Sciences to study the risk of developing multiple sclerosis as a result of serving in conflicts since the gulf war. This last piece is one I have worked on extensively, as I have worked with gulf war veterans in my State from the early nineties who are now coming in with high rates of multiple sclerosis, to find out if there is a connection. It is a critical piece of legislation.

But I am disappointed that the Republicans object to the provision in the bill before us that extends VA benefits to Filipino World War II veterans. Those now very elderly Filipino veterans were called to service by our country and by President Roosevelt in 1941. They served right alongside our U.S. troops. They fought to protect our interests as they were asked to in the Pacific. They consider themselves to be American troops, and we consider them to be part of our military.

We have a moral duty to repay their sacrifice by providing them with the care they have earned, just as we should do with all of our veterans. But in 1946, when the war was over, our Nation turned its back on them and stripped away their rights to their veterans benefits. That act of Congress denied those men the access to health care and limited compensation to half of what their U.S. counterparts received. I believe that act of Congress was wrong, but I believe it is just as wrong that 62 years later we still have not corrected that injustice.

Some on the other side are saying those benefits are too generous. Those veterans have been denied benefits for over 60 years. How can we say giving them a few hundred dollars in the last remaining months of their lives is too much? Sixty-two years later, those veterans are in their twilight years. They need and they deserve the care this country ought to give them. We cannot make up for lost time for these veterans, but certainly we can right this injustice. We have the opportunity today to do what is honorable, what is moral, and treat our Filipino veterans as the heroes they are, and it is long past time that we did.

I urge my colleagues to support this bill later this morning when we vote on it and to oppose the Burr substitute amendment which would remove those provisions for our Filipino veterans.

Our veterans have waited 9 months for this bill to come before the Senate. Our Filipino veterans have waited more than six decades. Our veterans have all earned these benefits by sacrificing for us. They should not be forced to wait any longer.

To our VA which has continually hidden the facts from us, we need them to be honest and forthright. This country wants to be there to support our veterans, and we cannot do that if we are being given misinformation.

So my message to the VA is: We stand beside you as a country to work to make sure our veterans get the care and support they need. We expect you to do the same.

Mr. President, I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I come to join my colleague from Maryland, the distinguished Senator Mikulski, who has always fought for women's rights because she knows that is what will make our country strong. I serve on the Health, Education, and Labor Committee with the Senator from Maryland. We saw Lilly Ledbetter come before our committee to speak about her experience in a factory where she was not given fair pay. Over time it went all the way to the Supreme Court, where she lost her right in her own lifetime to ever be compensated for the pay she lost because she wasn't treated fairly. She came before our committee, and she was such a woman of dignity and courage, not speaking for herself--anything we do on the floor won't help her personally--but speaking for all women who will come behind her for decades, to make sure they have the right to get equal pay when they are performing an equal job.

I thank Senator Mikulski for her leadership and urge our colleagues tomorrow to vote with us so we can go to the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and once and for all assure that our daughters and future generations will have access to equal pay.

This Senate has a very proud history of working across the aisle to pass civil rights laws. Those historic laws ensure that all people have equal rights, regardless of race, religion, gender, or national origin. I am proud that they ensure that my daughter now has the right to work in the same jobs and achieve the same success as my son. But even though women are doing the same jobs as men and working as hard every day, they still are not equal on one important day. That is payday. On payday, women will take home 77 cents for every dollar paid to their male coworkers. That pay gap is even wider for African-American and Latino women. African-American women earn 67 cents on the dollar and Latino women earn 56 cents for every dollar a white man makes. I know some people out there say: That can't be true. It is true.

I rise on Equal Pay Day to recognize that we still have a lot of work to do to ensure fairness in society. Tomorrow is the day the Senate can go on record saying we in this country are going to stand behind the women and men and their children who rely on them to bring home a paycheck.

The pay gap that exists is true regardless of skill or education. It is so deeply engrained in society that many jobs dominated by women pay less than jobs dominated by men, even when the work they do is almost exactly the same. In my State of Washington, a woman with a college degree earns about $20,000 less than a man with the same education. According to a study by the American Association of University Women, the difference in pay starts as soon as that woman enters the workforce. That study found that within a year after graduating from college, a woman will already earn less than her male classmates in nearly every major. So that is a problem when one starts out. It is also a lifelong problem, because by the end of her career, a female worker will have lost an average of $250,000 in earnings.

It is just as important to make it clear that the pay gap is a problem for everyone. This disparity hurts millions of families. In almost 10 million households, mothers are the only breadwinners, and in many cases those women are also supporting parents and extended family members. In far too many of those households women have to struggle to pay for rent or heat or food or gas, especially today as prices are rising. Think of how much better off families would be if a woman were paid a wage equal to men, especially as the economic downturn grows worse and expenses rise.

If women and men made an equal wage, single working women would have 17 percent more income each and every year. Ensuring they earn a fair paycheck could cut the poverty rate in half. Wage disparity follows those women into retirement. Women today are twice as likely to live in poverty over the age of 65. Women are more dependent upon Social Security for a greater percentage of their retirement income. All of us are staring down the looming Social Security crisis. Think how much better off we would be if women could save a little more for retirement and contribute more to Social Security.

My colleagues and I should not have to be here talking about this today. I should not have to come to the floor in the year 2008 to make a case for equal pay. Not only is it a no-brainer, but fairness and equality are fundamental American values. We are not asking for special treatment. We are here because, despite all the work done to ensure equal rights, women haven't achieved equality. We are here because we run the risk that pay discrimination laws are growing weaker, not stronger, if we don't act.

As Senator Mikulski discussed, the Supreme Court last May took a big step backward with its decision on Ledbetter v. Goodyear. That decision went against Congress's intent and 40 years of EEOC practice. It made it almost impossible for workers who suffer pay discrimination to now seek justice.

Today on Equal Pay Day, we urge our colleagues to support legislation that would reverse that decision and ensure workers have a fair shot at fighting discrimination. The Ledbetter decision requires many workers to file a claim within 180 days after their employer discriminates against them, but it does not recognize that in many cases workers don't even know they have been discriminated against for years. It may take them much longer than 180 days to gather the proof. Frankly, for women in the workplace to be aggressive in finding out how much other people get paid in order to even file a case is very difficult. This sounds an awful lot like the Supreme Court is asking our workers to be mindreaders. That is unfair. It is not what Congress intended when we created that law in the first place.

The Ledbetter Fair Pay Act will allow workers to file a claim within 180 days of any discriminatory paycheck. It gives workers the ability to discover the facts and to challenge ongoing discrimination. Although the Ledbetter case involved gender discrimination, the decision applies to all kinds of discrimination, including religion, race, age, disability, and national origin.

Our Nation was founded on the principle that all of its citizens are created equal. We think they ought to be equal on payday as well. As a mother and grandmother, I want my children to live in a country where my daughter can earn as much as my son. Now is the time to ensure that that can be true by strengthening our pay discrimination laws. Now is the time to ensure the Senate's history of civil rights cannot be eroded.

Tomorrow is an important day for women and men. I urge my colleagues to vote with us to consider the Fair Pay Act.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I come to the floor, along with the majority leader and my colleagues, to express our extreme frustration with what the minority, the Republicans are doing to block basic bills from getting through the Senate. We are trying to move to debate and offer amendments on a basic bill that needs to be done, called a technical corrections bill for transportation projects, changing minor things in the law so it can move forward. Normally this bill is done late at night; everyone agrees to it; there is no objection; it moves on; it takes only a few hours of time. It has gone through a lot of work in committee, which Senator Boxer chairs. They have done all their homework. It has passed on a bipartisan basis, and it was approved by the Senate late last night as a procedural move. But we are here today, spending hours and hours with no ability to move forward, no ability to offer

amendments, no ability to pass it, because the Republican minority has decided to filibuster this bill.

I go home every week, 2,500 miles away from here to the State of Washington. People come up to me and say: What are we going to do about the rising cost of health care? What are we going to do about the fact that fewer and fewer doctors are seeing seniors going into Medicare? What are we going to do about veterans waiting in line to get the care they have been promised? What are we going to do about the housing crisis? What are we going to do about Iraq and the President's request for $109 billion more? In Washington, Boeing workers come up to me and say: What are we going to do about a procurement process that has allowed our military to send $40 billion to a European-owned company, our tax dollars, at a time when our economy is struggling, to a European-owned company to start producing the backbone of our military, our air tankers? What are we going to do about that?

These are issues that we as Democrats want to bring to the floor and have major debates on, move legislation forward. They will take time. There is disagreement. Growing up in Washington State, when somebody said there is a filibuster, I assumed it was a major argument of the day. We would rush to find out what it was about and see which Senators were arguing which way and wonder in what direction this would change our country in the future.

We are a long way from that today. The filibuster is now being used as a delaying tactic so we won't get to those critical pieces of legislation, those critical debates we ought to be having in the Senate.

Republicans have engaged in an historic, record-setting level of obstruction over the last 14 months. They haven't filibustered the bills themselves, but they have filibustered motions to proceed to basic bills that we need to pass to keep Government running. They have delayed us from moving forward even after voting in favor of these bills. That is where we find ourselves today. Once again, Republicans have decided to keep us from moving forward simply to delay progress. They don't oppose the legislation. In fact, after filing cloture on the motion to proceed last Thursday and waiting the obligatory 30 hours, last night the Senate voted, and 93 Senators wanted to move this legislation forward. So why are we sitting here today delaying 30 more hours before Senators can even start to offer amendments, if they so choose, so that we can then move the bill to final passage, unless, of course, we have to file a motion to end debate and get to another filibuster of 30 hours, which will take a lot more time.

We have seen this before. It is about delaying. It is about not allowing America to move forward. It is about not allowing progress. The word ``filibuster'' gets thrown around a lot here. People think of ``Mr. Smith Goes to Washington'' and the movie appears in their head. That is the most celebrated version of a filibuster. But there are all kinds of filibusters. We have learned that firsthand, because at the core a filibuster is any procedural move to delay the Senate. Any one Senator has the power to delay us. The majority and the minority have the power to talk to Members and say: This is important to enough of us that we need to move past those objections and begin to move this forward. We need to work toward an agreement so we can move forward.

Time and time again we have seen people use delays on motions to proceed, and then the Senate has to wait 30 hours, 30 long hours with people such as me sitting out here talking on the floor on miscellaneous subjects until we can finally get through 30 hours so we can then be on the floor for hours waiting for Senators to offer amendments. That kind of delay has forced this Senate in this Congress for over a year now into weeks and weeks and weeks of wasted time. No wonder the American people think nothing is getting done in Washington. We are seeing delay after delay. Believe me, we are all frustrated that we cannot get to those important topics of the day, to be able to have perhaps a real filibuster on a real issue that is important, that would change the direction of this country. That is what a filibuster ought to be about. But here we have to file cloture on the motion to proceed to basic bills. We have had to file procedural motions on whether to follow the 9/11 Commission recommendations, which then passed 97 to nothing, once we got through all of those hours of waiting around. On the intelligence authorization bill, we had to file a motion to proceed to the bill, had to wait the 30 hours, and then the vote was 94 to 3. So a couple of Senators forced an entire Senate to wait 30 hours and not get anything done. Bill after bill I could list a desire on the part of the minority to delay progress.

What we are seeing is Republicans who are united for obstruction on issue after issue. Month after month, Republicans have put delay before debate, procedure above progress, and obstruction before solutions.

The American people, certainly in my State of Washington, want us to move forward and deal with the issues critical to their families. They are struggling today with the economy. They are worried about their ability to retire. They are worried about being able to send their kids to college. Certainly, our men and women who have gone to fight the war in Iraq are coming home and facing delays. Yet we can't get a veterans bill up on this floor because of the delays we are seeing.

Here we are today, waiting around to vote on a technical corrections bill to a transportation bill that ought to take a few minutes.

It is a sad day in the United States. I hope our colleagues will talk to their leaders and say: We need to move on. It is time to get the business of this country done. That is our job.

I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, I wish today to recognize the North Seattle Community College, in my home State of Washington, as a local leader in sustainability practices. The work of North Seattle Community College, and especially of the North Seattle Community College Sustainability Committee, has made significant contributions to raising awareness of sustainability issues in everyday life on the campus.

Created in 2005, the North Seattle Community College Sustainability Committee holds regular meetings to coordinate sustainability practices with faculty, staff, administrators, students, and interested local residents.

This committee has helped to create and implement an impressive list of community-wide activities including: sustainability curriculum, courses, and service learning opportunities; a Web site with useful resources; and an annual Earth Day celebration.

The North Seattle Community College Sustainability Committee also helped incorporate new resource management practices into campus operations and expanded the campus trail system. By providing these services, the North Seattle Community College Sustainability Committee has done a wonderful job of engaging students, teachers, and local citizens.

I believe that in order to truly embrace the opportunities and challenges of tomorrow, the youth of our Nation must have access to programs that foster stewardship and long-term commitment to community awareness. Washington State is fortunate to have schools like North Seattle Community College, which is a natural arena for the kind of innovation our Nation needs in order to embrace new environmentally friendly practices. Green programs and activities are critical to the development of environmentally aware citizens. I was proud to introduce the Higher Education Sustainability Act to help provide resources for college and universities to implement sustainability programs, and my hope is that schools like North Seattle Community College will continue to serve as great role models for other colleges around the Nation as they work on sustainability issues.

It is inspiring to see that the issue of sustainability is bringing people together, and I am proud North Seattle Community College is empowering the entire campus to work on positive solutions. I am sure North Seattle Community College will continue to be successful in inspiring change and providing continued leadership on this important issue.

Just comments.

Mr. President, I have not had a chance to speak on the bill. If I could--I understand we may be delaying the votes because of other reasons. If I could get 12 minutes to speak, after Senator Domenici, on the bill.

I will speak after.

Mr. President, I was going to ask unanimous consent to speak after all of the votes. I wanted to speak for about 12 minutes, and the other Senator from Washington, Senator Cantwell, wanted to speak for 3 or 4 minutes. I know everyone wants to get to the vote, so I will use my time after the vote.

I ask unanimous consent that following the disposition of all of the votes on this package, on final passage, I be recognized to speak for 12 minutes, and the other Senator from Washington, Senator Cantwell, be allowed to speak for 3 minutes.

Mr President, I move to reconsider the vote.

I move to reconsider the vote.

I move to lay that motion on the table.

The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

Vote on Amendment No. 4519

Madam President, I move to reconsider the vote, and I move to lay that motion on the table.

The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

Madam President, I thank my colleague from New Mexico for his tremendous work. I rise to thank all of my colleagues for supporting the public lands and natural resources package that was just passed by the Senate.

I, like many of my colleagues, have a vested interest in this bill. It contains my Wild Sky Wilderness Act which will designate over 100,000 acres as wilderness. This proposal is the result of almost 9 years of work by myself and Congressman Larsen of my home State. It has the support of the vast majority of the communities around the area, as well as outdoor enthusiasts, area businesses, and literally thousands of Washington State residents.

Congressman Larsen and I began working on Wild Sky back in 1999 because we were troubled by the rapid growth in Seattle and surrounding areas. We are so fortunate in our State to have unique and beautiful natural landscapes from the peaks of the Cascade Mountains, the northwest rain forest, the Olympic Peninsula to the mighty Columbia River. But many of our special lands could be jeopardized if we do not take action to preserve them now.

The Wild Sky Wilderness area will ensure that 106,000 acres of rolling hills, rushing rivers, and low-elevation forest in Washington State's Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest are going to be preserved for generations to come.

I am immensely proud of this legislation. The Wild Sky Wilderness area is just 90 minutes away from downtown Seattle. It will give more than 2.4 million from Snohomish, King, and Skagit Counties easy access to hike and camp in a distinctive northwest landscape, it will preserve unique low elevation ecosystems, and it is going to give the surrounding towns a great economic boost by increasing the number of visitors.

I am especially proud because so many people in Washington State are so excited about this wilderness proposal. Newspapers have endorsed it in more than 50 editorials, and more than 200 newspaper articles, op- eds, and letters to the editor have raved about it.

This is the fourth time the Senate has considered this bill. Wild Sky in the past has passed the Senate unanimously three times because we saw the value of this wilderness proposal and recognized that this bill is something my State supports.

Last year, for the first time, Wild Sky passed the House, and now passing the Senate, we are so close to making this truly a reality.

With that in mind, I want to take a few minutes to share with my colleagues what they just did. I want them to see some of the benefits this bill offers my home State of Washington and why people in my State are so eager to create the Wild Sky Wilderness.

Since the days when Native people and early settlers harvested salmon and timber from our streams and forests, people who live in Washington State have recognized the importance of our natural heritage. We have a great tradition in my State of respecting and enjoying the natural beauty that surrounds us.

Washington State is home to tremendously natural resources, and we have a proud history of embracing our national parks and our forests. The Wild Sky area is already being enjoyed by many of our citizens who hike or hunt or raft or camp there. And since we proposed designating it as wilderness, literally thousands of people have written Congressman Larsen and me to share their support. Many of those writers told personal stories about their experiences in the Wild Sky area.

Mike Town is a high school science teacher from Duvall, WA. He described introducing his students to a wild salmon spawning site near the Wild Sky Wilderness. Because that river's headwaters are in the proposed wilderness area, the water is still so pristine there that salmon are able to thrive, and today it is the one of the few places left in the Cascades where spawning salmon are still so numerous you could actually walk across the river on their backs.

Mike called that river one of the greatest spectacles in nature, and he said to me:

I cherish the belief that with federal protection for this

area, my teenage students will have the ability to share the

experience of spawning wild salmon with their grandchildren.

So the first reason we are so excited about Wild Sky is because it reflects the values of the people of Washington State.

But another reason this bill has so much support is because we worked hard to accommodate the needs of the users of this area. Very early on in the process, we reached out to all the local stakeholders to gauge their interest and ask if they had any concerns, and we were able to work with them and address many of the issues they raised.

We worked with Longview Fibre, a paper company that had some land in the proposed boundary. As a result, we were able to draw out certain areas and prioritize others that the company was willing to sell.

We heard from local and State snowmobile groups concerned that the boundaries of our original proposal would shut out important riding areas. So we took out a vast majority of those areas.

We ensured that float planes still have access to Lake Isabel.

We worked with the Forest Service and excluded heavily used areas around Barclay Lake and the only two areas where timber sales were being considered.

We made sure that Snohomish County and the Forest Service were comfortable with the emergency communication capability in and around the wilderness area.

And last winter, massive floods altered the path of the Skykomish River and displaced and destroyed parts of that road that provides access through our proposed wilderness area. So Congressman Larsen and I got back together and brought together Snohomish County, the Forest Service, and local advocates to responsibly adjust the boundaries of this wilderness to make sure the road could be rebuilt and remain open for future use.

Thanks to all of this work, we have the support now of many of the locally elected officials and most of the surrounding towns and counties. Local conservation, hunting, and fishing groups back this bill. The Seaplane Pilots Association and many local businesses endorse it, and the Under Secretary of Natural Resources for the Forest Service, Mark Rey, said the President will sign this bill.

Even though many people in Washington State understand and appreciate the value of wilderness, this bill has a lot of support because we were also willing to work with the diverse groups of people who have an interest in how this land is used. This truly was a public process.

Although we, of course, could not meet every single need, we have made every effort to accommodate everyone who engaged in this process, and thanks to this effort, this bill is an example of wilderness done the right way.

I wish to talk about the benefits of Wild Sky because I am so excited about what it offers people who live in my State and those who visit. Several years ago, I took a trip through the area where the Wild Sky Wilderness would be. It is very hard to put into words how beautiful this stunning, amazing area is that is 90 minutes from downtown Seattle.

A significant part of this wilderness is seemingly endless expanses of meadows. Rolling mountains can be seen that are covered with stands of huge old moss-covered trees, and some of those trees are over 100 years old. From the ridges, you have incredible views of the western slopes of the Cascade Mountains.

This area is so unique. And one of the things that makes it unique is its relatively low elevation. About one-third of Wild Sky is below 3,000 feet. So the Wild Sky Wilderness area is going to bring new ecological systems into our wilderness lands that are underrepresented right now.

Wild Sky links our forests and meadows and steep craggy peaks, as you can see, and it is going to create a protected habitat corridor for all the wildlife living in this area. We have wolves and mountain goats, black and grizzly bears, and deer and trout.

Salmon spawning grounds teeming with fish--just like the one my town's science teacher showed his students--used to be very common, but today many of those species are struggling to survive. So at a time when we are asking private landowners to assist in recovering wild fish runs, I believe the Federal Government ought to do everything it can on its own land to help protect and restore that wildlife habitat.

Secondly, Madam President, the Wild Sky Wilderness is going to offer us great new recreational opportunities for people in a growing region. Wild Sky is unusually accessible because of its low elevation, and it is near an urban area. So families looking for a quick and easy access to nature are going to be able to enjoy this very pristine land. Climbers and hikers, hunters and anglers have already sent us letters and e-mails talking about the opportunities that Wild Sky offers.

Mark Heckert, who is a fish and wildlife biologist from Puyallup, wrote to me that he has taken his two sons to camp and hunt and fish in this area. He wrote me about how much he values the outdoors and said he hopes to secure the Wild Sky Wilderness for his children to enjoy. He said to me:

Wild landscapes like those provided in the Wild Sky provide

the stage for a generational right of passage where young

boys and girls can discover their connection to our land.

Creating this Wild Sky Wilderness is going to ensure that Mark and his sons can return to Wild Sky in the years to come.

Finally, Madam President, hikers, climbers, rafters, hunters, and anglers who visit us in the Puget Sound area--and I invite everyone who is listening to come and enjoy Wild Sky--will spend their money as they travel through this area. Recreational enthusiasts will see Wild Sky in the future listed on maps and guide books as a special destination, and those tourists will come and stay in our hotels and our campgrounds and eat in our restaurants and use local guides and outfitters.

In recent years, the outdoor recreation business appears to have stayed healthy, even during bad economic times, and Wild Sky is going to help contribute to that in the future. And, again, I invite all who are listening to come and enjoy this beautiful place that you saw get voted on here in the Senate this afternoon.

Madam President, those are just a few of the benefits of this Wild Sky Wilderness. We have done a lot of hard work on this bill in the last 8 years, and we couldn't have done it without the help of a lot of people. So let me take the last few minutes and thank all of the people across my State and here in the Senate who have worked so hard to get this bill done.

I thank Chairman Bingaman and his great staff, especially Bob Simon and David Brooks, for their help and their unwavering support of Wild Sky throughout all the years.

I thank Senator Domenici, who is leaving us this year to retire. Without him and his hard work on this bill, we wouldn't be here today.

I thank Senators Crapo and Murkowski for all they did over the past weeks and months to move this package forward. I couldn't have gotten here--we couldn't have gotten here--without their hard work.

I thank many of my staff members, especially Doug Clapp, who helped me originally develop this bill many years ago; Jaime Shimek, Evan Schatz, and Mike Spahn. I can't even begin to say all the names of my staff members who over the years have worked with us as we have developed this bill and gotten it over the finish line. I thank all of them.

I recognize the hard work and support of Congressman Larsen and his staff, Senator Cantwell and her staff. She is on the Senate floor this afternoon as well and serves on the committee. I could not have done it without her help and support. I know she has climbed into the Wild Sky and seen it as well as I have and is as excited as I am to be out there to see this completed.

I thank Under Secretary Mark Rey of the administration, who supported this bill for many years.

But above all, Madam President, I thank the people of my home State of Washington who have worked tirelessly to bring this idea from a proposal on a

piece of paper 9 years ago to legislation that was passed in the Senate this afternoon.

I am going to be back when the President signs this bill into law and thank a broader list of people who have been so essential, but as I finish this afternoon I want to note the work of Tom Uniack and Mike Town, and I thank them personally for all their work. They have been so willing to listen and to answer questions and to give tours of the Wild Sky country and have worked with us every step of the way.

Tom and Mike, thank you. All your hard work has paid off, and we now have passed in the Senate a very popular bill.

Wild Sky is going to help my State take a great step forward in protecting our environment. It is going to enhance our economy, it is going to improve our recreational opportunities, and I can tell you, people from my State are eager to get this bill through the House quickly and on to the President's desk to be signed.

We took a major step forward toward this goal today, and, again, I invite all of you who are listening to come to the State of Washington and visit Wild Sky.

I thank the Chair.

Mr. President, I come to the floor this morning to talk about a very special person on my staff. Bill Kamela came on to head my HELP Subcommittee on Employment and Workforce Safety about 5 years ago. Ever since then, he has been a critical part of my staff.

Bill is a trusted adviser, and I think what impresses all of us the most is he truly is a visionary when it comes to making the Federal Government a strong partner in worker training and safety.

Thanks to the work of Bill Kamela, across the country today, fewer employees have to worry about the danger of hazards or unsafe working conditions that they go to work every day and see. Because of his good work and insistence, more workers today get access to good-paying jobs, training, and advancement.

I come to the floor today because Bill is now preparing to move on to the next phase of his career. While we are all in my office very happy for him, we are all extremely sad to see him go. I wanted to come to the floor today to take just a couple minutes to recognize Bill's tremendous contribution on behalf of working families throughout the entire country.

Bill grew up in Buffalo, NY, where he learned the value of hard work and public service. Although he left Buffalo for Washington, DC, many years ago, anyone who has spent time with him knows that his passions are all things Buffalo, especially his beloved Buffalo Bills. We know when it comes to them, they take precedence over anything else that is going on.

Anyone who has worked with Bill also knows that he took to heart those lessons he learned growing up there about the importance of public service. Bill has dedicated his life and his career to helping kids and young people and families everywhere find success. He has worked with the National Urban Coalition, in the office of Congressman Gus Hawkins, at the National Safe Kids Campaign, and with a number of nonprofits. In every one of those positions, he has worked behind the scenes for policies that keep our working families strong.

Before he came to my staff, Bill spent 6 years at the Department of Labor under President Clinton where he served as chief of staff for the Employment and Training Administration. When he worked at the Labor Department, one of his responsibilities was to implement the Workforce Investment Act, which is, as we all know, the cornerstone of our national job training system.

Since coming to my staff, he has worked diligently on WIA, and thanks to him workers today have access to the training they need so they can still be successful in life no matter what happens to them.

Bill has been the staff director for my Employment and Workforce Safety Subcommittee. His dedication to those working families, as well as his passion for public service, has made it possible for us to make progress on the key piece of legislation to which he has devoted so many years, the Workforce Investment Act.

What impresses many of us in the Senate is that he works across the aisle, and he brings people of all kinds to the table to get things done. He has worked tirelessly, as I said, to fund and strengthen WIA and other job training programs to help workers find and keep good- paying jobs.

He also worked extremely hard and impressively on the Miner Act, which improved safety and ensured coal miners have better access to lifesaving equipment, air, and water in case of an accident.

But I think one of the things I will remember Bill the most for is his work on helping us to pass in the Senate the Ban Asbestos in America Act. He sat with me in countless meetings. He talked to so many families. He held the hands of widows whose spouses had died as a result of their exposure to asbestos. And he brought so many people to the table and diligently worked detail after detail after detail until we could bring up this bill in the Senate and, after many years, finally pass it. I owe him a debt of gratitude for that, and I want him to know as he leaves my office we are going to keep working under his name to get that bill done and to the President so those people he has worked with can finally see this bill become law.

I have to say again he has been instrumental in our efforts to make the Federal Government a strong partner. He brings together educators, workforce folks, labor, and employers because he knows everyone needs a seat at the table so our workforce can compete in this global economy.

But his contributions go far beyond legislation. Outside of my office, his attention to building personal relationships has earned him tremendous respect and admiration of workforce leaders across my State. Inside my office, he has earned all of our respect. He is a mentor to all of his coworkers. He has never been one to close the door behind him. He is always generous with his time, and he has helped bring up the next generation of staffers who rely on him so much for his sound advice or a good pep talk, whichever they need.

Bill has an uncanny knack for keeping everything balanced on staff. He sets realistic expectations, but he does not ever let anyone get discouraged. I know that will carry him far in this world.

So I come to the floor today to thank Bill for his work and for his dedication to our country, and I thank him for his personal advice so many times, his enthusiasm, and his passion for working families in my State and across the country. I wish him the best as he moves on. He will be dearly missed.

Mr. President, I yield the floor.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the pending amendment be temporarily set aside so I may call up amendment No. 4478.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that reading of the amendment be dispensed with.

Madam President, it is not my desire to debate this amendment at length at this time. I only

wanted to call it up so it will be available for the Senate to consider as we continue to debate this extremely important housing bill that is in front of us.

Late last week, the Senate considered the question of additional funding for housing counseling. When the Senate voted on that matter, there were 16 Senators who were absent from the Chamber. So that amendment did fail at the time on a procedural vote. But I do believe some Senators may have voted against our initial amendment because it added funds to the overall cost of this bill. The new amendment I have just called up will add the necessary funding for housing counselors from within the funds already in the bill.

Senator Schumer and I are going to be talking about this amendment in greater detail at the appropriate time. I think as we continue to try to address the housing issue, we all remember there are up to 2 million families who may go into foreclosure this year, and our main objective ought to be to make sure they do not go into foreclosure. That is what this housing counseling funding does. It is extremely important. I hope as we move this bill along we will be able to add the additional funding.

Madam President, I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent to set aside the Voinovich amendment in order to call up amendment No. 4397.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that further reading of the amendment be dispensed with.

Madam President, I offer this amendment for myself and Senator Schumer, Senator Casey, and Senator Brown.

I am extremely happy that we do have a bipartisan bill now that provides a solution to the problem at the very center of our Nation's economic downturn--the housing crisis--that has shaken communities across this country. We know that each month this year thousands of homeowners will see their interest rates rise, and many more will find themselves underwater as the housing market in their region continues to suffer. If the Federal Government doesn't take action, as many as 2 million American families are going to lose their homes to foreclosure this year. Each one of those foreclosures represents a family whose dream of a comfortable home and a secure future is going to be dashed, and each one of those foreclosures really weakens the foundation of a community.

This crisis has already rippled across our economy. If we don't take aggressive steps to prevent it from becoming worse, it is going to take that much longer for our neighborhoods and our hometowns to recover. That is why I rise this afternoon to offer an amendment with Senators Schumer, Casey, and Brown which I believe will help make this bill much stronger. Our amendment will provide an additional $100 million for housing counselors, who really are our front line of defense in the fight to prevent more families from losing their homes. What our amendment does is double the money for housing counseling that is in this bill. It builds on our efforts we started last year.

In last year's omnibus budget, we included $180 million through the NeighborWorks America Program for housing counseling to help 450,000 homeowners who are in trouble today. As chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation and Housing, I worked hard with my colleague, Senator Bond, to push for that money. The bill before us today would provide the resources to help another 250,000 homeowners, and our amendment would enable us to bring the total number of families helped through this bill to 500,000.

Many homeowners today don't know that they can get help if they get behind on their mortgage. Too many of them don't make contact with their lender when they miss their first payment, and too many just feel intimidated or don't trust their bank enough to make a call. But housing counselors can help these families. They can help them negotiate with their lender, readjust their payment, or learn how to budget their expenses better.

The last couple of years have really proven that this kind of assistance may be the most cost-effective and important piece of the solution to the housing crisis, and that is why we believe we must ensure that counseling agencies get more resources as soon as possible if we are going to turn around this economic crisis.

According to the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, 96 percent of the families who get counseling avoid foreclosure. Let me say that again. Ninety-six percent of the families who get counseling avoid foreclosure. That means almost all the people who seek help from an expert will not lose their homes.

We know the demand is there. Last year, the demand for the $180 million made available for counseling in the omnibus was twice as high as the money available, and that happened even though counseling agents across

the country had only 2 weeks last year to apply for the grants. In just the couple of months that have passed since then, several States have seen a dramatic increase in their foreclosures, and people in those communities and other communities across the country are very worried. We all know that foreclosures have left our neighborhoods full of vacant homes. Families are distressed, they are in trouble, and State and local governments are seeing their tax revenues drop now, even as the needs out there are piling up.

These counseling agencies we provide the funding for are telling us they need desperately more resources to help address this. In my home State of Washington, the number of calls to counselors doubled in just the first few months of this year, and we know that is true across the country. But if the numbers aren't compelling enough, let me tell you personally about a few people I know who have been helped.

One of them is a man named Clifford. He is a gentleman from my State, and I don't want to use his last name to protect his privacy, but he told me what happened to him. He and his family thought they had achieved the American dream by owning a home. Their home represented stability. It was an important investment in their future. But they started having trouble with their mortgage because Clifford lost his factory job, and pretty soon his wife got sick and she needed surgery. Before they knew it, they were a couple of months behind and were struggling with their mortgage company about how they could ever catch up. They turned eventually to Consumer Counseling Northwest, got a counselor who gave them help and advice, and he told me that made all the difference. Clifford's housing counselors were able to help him get his payments reduced, and now his family has been able to pay the mortgage and keep their home.

Madam President, there are many families like Clifford's across the country--people who are teetering on the edge and just need a little bit of help and counseling to avoid a crisis.

Earlier this year, at an event with Senators Bond and Cochran--and with Representatives Olver and Knollenberg from the House--I had an opportunity to meet a single mom from Ohio. She told us she had fallen on very hard times, which in turn led her to fall behind, and she soon found out she couldn't pay her mortgage. But thanks to help from NeighborWorks America, she told us that she and her children didn't lose their home and they were able to stay there. She told me that when she got behind, she just got completely overwhelmed. She told me she didn't know what to do. She said: You know, this is not something they teach you in school.

Well, these counselors made a difference in her life and thousands of others. We should not turn our back on families today who want to make a call and get help, who want to get their mortgages back in line and keep their homes. The economic health of this country depends on Americans having a safe and stable place to live and raise their families. We want every family who is facing a challenge today to know that there is help out there, and when they call, we want to make sure there is a knowledgeable counselor on the other end of the line who can give them the help they need.

So here is the bottom line. We know we have millions of people who need help, and we know housing counseling can make a difference. So I think it would be unconscionable not to provide this money, and I urge my colleagues to support this amendment that will put the resources out there to make sure families in all our communities can pick up their phone, make a call, get the help they need, and keep their investment in their home and their security for the future.

Madam President, I have been proud to work with the Senator from New York, as well as others, on this bill, and I know he is on the floor and ready to speak as well.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, pursuant to section 201(b) of S. Con. Res. 21 of the 110th Congress, I move to waive the point of order for the consideration of the pending amendment, and I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. President, what our amendment simply does is provide an additional $100 million for counseling so families do not go into foreclosure. There is $15 billion in spending in this underlying bill, all of which is being declared an emergency. It seems to me that $100 million of it, which is a small additional amount compared to that $15 billion, that we know has a 96-percent success rate of keeping families in their home so they do not go into foreclosure, is a very smart investment.

I think it would be very foolish to block this on a budget point of order because it is one of the few issues in this bill that will actually keep people in their homes and prevent this crisis from getting larger.

I urge my colleagues to vote against the budget point of order.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island be listed as a cosponsor of this amendment.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. President, over the last year, Americans across the country have watched as our economy has faltered, and for far too many families the economic downturn has hit home in the form of a foreclosure. This is a time when we badly need a strong and effective response from the administration led, in part, by the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

But instead of helping the millions of families who are struggling to stay above water, HUD has been almost constantly distracted by the ethical questions that have been facing its Secretary, Alphonso Jackson. Ten days ago, I felt the problem had reached a breaking point, so I called for Secretary Jackson's resignation. Today, Mr. Jackson announced he has decided to move on, and President Bush must now nominate a new Housing Secretary with the experience and the credibility to attack this crisis rather than hide from it.

Mr. President, I hope this development is a sign that the administration wants to finally make the needs of American families a priority. I hope it is a sign that the administration wants to work with Congress on a meaningful response to the crisis that has swept across this Nation. I hope President Bush will change his position and support our effort to pass legislation that will help millions of families who are facing foreclosure today.

This week, we will give President Bush and the Republican Senators that chance again as we take up the Foreclosure Prevention Act for the second time this year. Until now, it seems that some on the other side of the aisle have been more responsive to Wall Street than Main Street.

So I hope my colleagues who were home over the break have listened, as I have, to the concerns of their constituents and have now returned ready to work and address our Nation's housing crisis. This truly is a crisis. I wish to spend a couple minutes talking about why we have to take action now.

As many as 2 million American families are going to lose their homes to foreclosure this year. Each foreclosure represents a family whose dream of a comfortable home and secure future has been dashed. Each foreclosure weakens the foundation of our entire economy and our communities. Foreclosures have left our neighborhoods full of vacant homes. Foreclosures have left our families distressed and troubled, and communities are now reporting a higher crime rate as a result of this crisis. State and local governments are seeing their tax revenues drop even as their needs are piling up. We in Congress can help prevent this by investing in our communities and providing support for families who risk losing everything.

The Foreclosure Prevention Act would make changes in bankruptcy laws so that more financially troubled families could keep their homes. It would change lending laws to prevent more borrowers from accepting terms they don't understand and cannot afford. It would provide an additional $200 million to help housing counselors continue to reach out to families who are at risk of foreclosure.

I wish to focus on the last point because it is extremely important. Too many homeowners today don't know they can get help when they get behind on their mortgage. Too many of them don't contact their lender when they miss their first payment. Too many are just intimidated or don't feel they can trust anyone. The Foreclosure Prevention Act would give counseling agencies the resources they need to reach out and let borrowers know they have options. Counseling can help families negotiate with their lenders, readjust their payments, or learn how to budget their expenses better.

Last month, I had the opportunity to meet a single mother from Ohio. She had fallen on hard times which, in turn, led her to fall behind in her mortgage. Luckily, with housing counseling made possible by NeighborWorks America, she and her children were able to stay in their home. She explained to me that when she got behind, she was simply overwhelmed; she didn't know what to do. She said this is not something about which they teach you in school.

Our economic health in this country depends on Americans having a safe and stable place to live and raise their families. We want every family to know there is help out there. The Foreclosure Prevention Act would help make sure families that risk losing everything get the help they need before it is too late.

Across this country, people are worried about whether they are going to be able to keep their homes, whether their jobs will be eliminated, and how they are going to pay for health care when they or their children get sick. These are real families, and these are real communities in need of help.

We need to pass this reform immediately. Americans want action. We wanted to pass it last month, and we were stopped by Republican efforts to block this bill. So I hope now, as we have returned from the recess, President Bush and our Republican colleagues will support our efforts. I hope they will come with us tomorrow, stand with us, and pass meaningful reform that will give homeowners the help they need, allow them to keep their homes, give their families hope, and ultimately make our communities strong again.

Mr. President, I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.